The Attic Of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place
by wounds fester
Summary: PreHBP The death of his Godfather has caused Harry to wonder if Voldemort is going to take everyone he gets close to away from him. Will a discovery in his inherited house leave him determined to stand against the Dark Lord?


**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or any of the other characters or places. I simply own the plot, and this text because I took** **the time to type it.**

**Warnings: **A bit of Harry/Ginny, Order Of The Phoenix Spoilers, might seem a little angsty.

**Dedicated to Jazzi-chan who is teh awesomeness.**

**The Attic of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place**

**One-shot**

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A door opened, revealing a patch of light on the dust-laden floor of an old attic. Two people slipped inside, treading softly as if they were afraid that they would awaken some creature.

They appeared to be in their teens, the girl looked slightly younger. She had vibrant red hair that hung just past her shoulders in slight waves. Her eyes sparkled a sweet sapphire, even in the dimly lit room.

The boy could have been easily identified by the lightning bolt scar on his forehead, if has untidy black hair hadn't been covering it. His eyes were an elegant emerald, but were slightly gazed as he surveyed his dingy-looking surroundings.

These two were in fact Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter, both of whom were mourning the death of Sirius Black in many different levels.

The attic that they were standing in was the top story of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, the previous residence of Sirius.

Ginny looked at Harry, a sad smile gracing her slightly glossed lips. "Come on," she said, gently tugging his hand. She glanced around before carefully stepping forward and kneeling in the floor.

Harry stiffly kneeled beside her, his green eyes scanning the box in front of them. He gingerly lifted the lid, laying it on the floor beside him. His green eyes scanned the contents of the box before he reached inside, lifting out portrait after portrait of the Black Family, all silently jeering and making rude gestures at Harry and Ginny.

Ginny smiled slightly, though it was void of happiness or mirth... It was a sad sort of smile, the only kind that could be seen around here. She glanced at Harry, her brow creasing slightly in worry. She wanted to ask him if he was alright, if he needed anything, but.. He always seemed to be upset whenever anyone asked him. So, she didn't.

Harry felt Ginny's gaze on him, but didn't say anything to her. He scanned the rest of the contents of the books, quickly sorting through them. "This is all junk." He said, finally, setting the portraits in the box and closing it. He stood up, nudging it towards the door with his foot.

He kneeled beside another box, glancing curiously at Ginny. "You can sort through any of them... Just keep ones that have things with… that were..." he bit his lip, a slightly fearful expression on his face before it was tilted down to the box. He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to... hopefully.

They went on like this for several minutes, quietly moving through the attic, the stack of boxes near the door growing slowly. Every once in a while, Ginny would call Harry over to the box that she was at, asking him if he wanted to keep something. He'd usually answer her wordlessly, with a simple nod or shake of the head.

They kept their voices low, when there was conversation, barely above a whisper. It seemed that they were afraid to be discovered.

Suddenly, Ginny gasped loudly. "Harry, come see this!" she commanded, her voice excited and her eyes widened as she looked at him. He stood up quickly, stepping towards her quickly and scanning the object in her hands.

"It's a video camera," he said, his shoulders slumping slightly as if he had thought it would be Sirius himself. It was, of course, a muggle video camera. It was rather old and very beat-up, it probably didn't even work.

Ginny nodded, "I _know_ what it is." she replied, rolling her eyes slightly. (Harry raised an eyebrow skeptically, he didn't think she did.) "But, why would Si-" she paused quickly, biting her lip slightly at the look on Harry's face. "Why would _he_ keep it? It has to have some… meaning... doesn't it?" she asked, looking from the camera and then back to Harry.

He nodded slightly, gently taking it from her as he knelt beside the box that she had taken it from. He slowly opened the side wing, switching the video camera to '_Play_'. The screen turned blue, then slowly a picture came into view. The video quality wasn't that good, and the sound crackled, but it could be seen and understood.

Ginny quickly crawled beside Harry, so that she could see the picture as well, her blue eyes scanning it in awe. "Wow..." she muttered. Harry glanced at her, a slight smile on his face. He had just remembered that Ginny had never seen anything like this. He quickly looked back to the camera as the person using it found out how to focus on the people they were recording.

"Okay, this is our lovely couple, they just really can't keep their hands off of each other..." a voice heavy with laughter could be heard, though the source of it was unknown which probably meant that he was using the camera. Even though he couldn't see him, Harry was sure that it was Lupin... It just sounded like him.

The camera was positioned in front of a scarlet-upholstered couch, a bespectacled teen that looked almost just like Harry (except for the lack of a scar and the hazel eyes) was sitting there, beside him a red-haired and green-eyed girl. They both were smiling slightly, and the male chuckled when someone yelled, "Go James, go!"

Harry bit his lip, scanning the picture with slightly teary eyes. This was his mum and dad. Just... sitting there... holding hands. They were happy. He looked at Ginny, who was scanning the camera, her awe slightly faded, and looking slightly concerned.

Lily smiled slightly, shaking her head, "Remus, we weren't snogging. We're just sitting here," she said, glancing at James. She raised an eyebrow slightly, and he nodded quickly.

"Of course. No snogging. Nope. Not us. Never." he said, shaking his head and grinning slightly.

A younger Sirius came into view, plopping beside Lily and putting an arm around her. "Right then. So, what was Prongsie here doing with his tongue down your throat, then? Were you choking? 'Cause it really seemed like _he _was the one choking you…" he asked, looking at James, and then back to Lily.

Laughter erupted from 'Prongsie', but he quickly put a hand over his mouth to suppress it. He was still shaking with laughter, and every once in a while a giggle could be heard. Lily looked at James, and then at Sirius, "I don't know what you're talking about." she said, keeping a completely serious face. (( **A/N:** Ignore the pun, please! ))

Sirius grinned slightly, "Sure you don't." he said, glancing at the camera with a look that said he didn't believe her, but was pretending to.

Lily just rolled her eyes, "You know what, you don't have to believe us. We don't need your faith. Do we, James?" she asked, glancing at him.

James grinned slightly, "Is that a trick question?" he asked after a few moments' thought, looking from Lily, to Sirius, to the Remus who was behind the camera. Lily raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. She folded her arms across her chest and gave him a look that said, 'Well?'

He cleared his throat, "Um… No… Yes… I don't know! Do we, Lily?" he asked, mimicking her perfectly for the last sentence, except for his facial expression was slightly inquisitive.

Lily laughed, "No." she said, looking at Sirius. James grinned slightly, taking the moment to lean forward and kiss her.

Lily's eyes widened and she pushed him away, "James!" she exclaimed, but he jumped up and ran off. She got up, beginning to run after him.

The video ended there, and Harry's face fell slightly before he heard the beginning audio of the next memory that they had managed to tape. Harry's parents grew before his eyes, along with Sirius, Remus, and Peter (in width, not height). The video shorts were filled with the four boys' antics, and a few hilarious and fun arguments with Lily, who was as stubborn as Mrs. Weasley when she wanted to be.

After quite a few short performances by the Marauders and Lily, all around the same time frame, Harry thought that it was over. He bit his lip slightly, moving his thumb to hit the rewind button and almost pushing it when another video began to play.

The camera was pointed at a field, a few rows of stands could be seen in the lower part of the image, they had managed to get really good seats, Harry could see. Fourteen people were zooming around on brooms, seven of them sporting sky blue robes with double 'T's in dark blue on the chest and back. The other half wore navy-blue robes bearing two crossed gold bulrushes.

The commentator could be heard in the background, telling everyone what was happening. The camera switched to the side, showing James, Lily, Remus, and finally Peter, in the very far left. They all looked older, a lot more mature. Well, _looked_ mature. As soon as James jumped up cheering as Puddlemere United scored, it was obvious that he wasn't as… well… mature as he was supposed to be.

Lily grinned slightly, exchanging an amused look with Remus, before clapping slightly and looking back at the game. James sat back down, grinning slightly and running his fingers through his hair. He looked over, jumping slightly when he saw the camera.

"Sirius, mate, why'd you bring that out?" he asked, poking the video camera lense slightly.

A cloth immediately swept up, momentarily obscuring the view of James as he cleaned the lense. "Don't do that, you'll smudge it." he muttered firmly, not answering James question.

James grinned slightly, as if he knew a secret. "You're not going to tape it are you?" he asked, his voice suddenly low so that only Sirius could hear.

A slight chuckle could be heard coming from behind the camera, "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I?" he asked, as if the idea that he wouldn't was just outrageous.

James shook his head, "Because it might be something that I'd – we'd – like to be private?" he asked, giving Sirius a slightly dirty look. He looked back at the Quidditch field, realizing that the game was coming to an end. Both of the seekers had spotted the snitch, and they were racing for it, Puddlemere United's being closer to it.

James nudged Lily lightly, "Can I talk to you?" he asked her, standing up.

Lily looked at him, her brow furrowing slightly, "Now?" he nodded wordlessly. "But, James, you've been waiting to see this game for months! I couldn't keep you to stop talking about it." she said, giving him an odd look.

James shook his head, glancing at the Quidditch field and then back at Lily, "C'mon." he said, gently lacing his fingers with hers' as she stood up. He led her to an obscured corner, and slowly began saying something to her, though he was speaking too low for anyone to hear him.. Especially over the commentator and the cheering fans.

Nevertheless, the camera followed him, and Sirius focused on the couple. Footsteps could be heard as someone walked closer to him, and the camera switched momentarily to Remus who sat in James' seat. "Well, he's doing it.." he muttered, glancing in the corner where James and Lily were.

The camera bobbed slightly, which meant that Sirius nodded, then moved back to focus on James and Lily. All of a sudden, James kneeled down and produced a velvet ring box. He still couldn't be heard, but what he said next was obvious. Lily screamed, "Yes!" she quivered slightly, tears streaming down her cheeks.

James slipped the engagement ring on her left ring finger before standing up and embracing her. He gently kissed her cheek and they stood there for several moments, whispering inaudible _'I love you'_s.

After a few moments, the couple walked back to the other two, a grin on each of their faces. Sirius whooped, and the segment ended.

Almost immediately, which was rather surprising, as the other segments had had a longer pause in between them. The odd thing was, though, that you couldn't see anything. It was just a white-ish blur.

Harry scanned the buttons for a moment, as if searching for something to fix it, but didn't find anything. He sighed, his green eyes becoming slightly duller than they had been since Ginny found the camera.

Then, "Sirius, you git, you zoomed in too much!" the view pulled back slowly, the white blur ending up being one of the sheets that covered a weary (but happy) looking woman. She was holding a sleeping baby, his eyelids closed over vibrant green eyes. The wisps of black hair that he had were already untidy, matching the man who leaned over the bed to gaze at him.

Lily looked up, smiling at the camera. "You aren't going to document every second of my son's life, are you?" she asked, "Because I will have to break the camera if you try."

Sirius, behind the camera, took a quick step back. "You wouldn't dare!" he said, his voice low. After a moment, he laughed. "Of course I'm not going to. But I just want to have a nice picture of my perfect godson!"

James looked up, "You've already taken tons of pictures, Sirius." he said, though a smile was visible tugging at his lips.

"But not _videos_, James.. _Videos_ are different," he replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Lily laughed slightly, and then looked down at her son, "If you wake him I'll kill you," she muttered, but it was obvious that she wasn't going to make him turn it off.

Harry could hear the smile on Sirius' face as he spoke, "'Course I won't. I'm not _that_ irresponsible," he said indignantly.

Lily and James exchanged a significant glance, but didn't contradict him.

"Okay, now," Sirius began again. "This is _the_ Harry James Potter. He's my godson, and he's going to be the best Quidditch-"

"Healer," Lily corrected him. "He's going to be the best _Healer_ in the world."

James laughed, "Really? Why can't we let him choose?" he asked, though it was obvious that he agreed with Sirius.

Lily opened her mouth to respond, but instead a soft whine came from the baby clutched to her chest. The small whine soon progressed into a full scream, and Lily gave Sirius a murderous glance before the camera was turned off.

There were only a few more shots before the tape was over, much to Harry's displeasure.

He stayed there staring at the blank screen even after it had turned from blue to black before he finally closed it. He set the camera back in the box, staring at it for several moments.

He was shaken from his reverie when Ginny put a hand on his shoulder, "All right, Harry?" she asked with a concerned expression on her face.

He looked at Ginny for the first time in several minutes, green eyes meeting blue before he averted his gaze.

She was shocked when she realized that he was on the verge of tears, and she somehow felt as if it was her fault but that was probably impossible.

She hesitantly put her arms around him, causing him to instantly cling to her, obviously trying to stifle his own sobs.

"It's okay, Harry. You need it," she whispered, holding him tighter.

It seemed like they were like that forever, Harry sobbing gently into Ginny's robes as she rubbed his back and did her best to comfort him. It was difficult when she couldn't even attempt to feel what he was going through, but she tried anyway.

Harry finally sat up, pulling away from her gentle embrace. He wiped his face with his arm, slowly lifting his face to look up at her. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, as if he was afraid that he'd start crying again if he spoke louder.

Ginny shook her head, "Harry, I told you it was fine.. You're going through a lot of pain, you need to relieve some of it somehow," she said quietly, glancing around the room.

She felt like she was only making it worse, for some reason, and that made it hard for her to meet his eyes. It was as if she was almost... guilty.

After a few moments, Harry broke the silence. "Thank you," he said softly, an almost shy smile on his face.

Ginny looked at him with surprise, then managed a small smile of her own. "You're welcome," she said, keeping the same tone if not softer than his.

Harry nodded curtly, pulling himself up and offering her a hand. Ginny took it, allowing him to help her up.

"We should finish, then," Ginny muttered, gesturing around the room.

"Right."

"Right."

And they continued.

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**Author's Note: **Okay, I have a feeling that that sucked. I actually got the idea of this earlier this year, but never got around to starting it. A few things contradict Half-Blood Prince, but I still kinda like it. I wanted there to be a little more Harry/Ginny action in there, but decided to leave it at that.

Sorry it's choppy and lacks any real... anything. I was putting it off a lot, but I'm glad that I finished it. Now for my other story..


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